Hip Hop Spammin'....The Short Life of a Song

So I noticed today that the track list for Blu's NoYork album (may) have dropped on the net.  Supposedly Blu threw it up, so its got to be the official cuts.  While reading the comments about the, I saw a comment that really upset me because its something I've been venting about to close Hip Hop friends for a while now. 

Only 8 songs? A million features? This guy releases music like once a year and he releases this?

First off, the album has 17 songs listed in this "official" track list.  But, that's just a math error on his part.  Not a big deal, because comments always jump the gun on shit like that, right?  My issue is with the last sentence, "This guy release music like once a year...".  Uhhh, how often is Blu SUPPOSED to release music a year.  This is the problem with the quality in music now.  Yall trifling ass fans have no patience.  Its a hell of a disgust I have with people like this.  What is this dude sitting at home doing all day-- reading 2dopeboyz.com.  What is Blu doing, writing lyrics and producing for his upcoming album.  And he's more than likely, doing some quality
damn work; what else should we expect from the B.est L.yricist U.ndergroud?  Rappers like Lil B, yes I'm talkin about this nigga AGAIN, have completely ruined the longevity of rap music.  How?  By doing 400 songs and dropping a new mixtape every month.  They've flooded the market with music to stay relevant because their music has literally no life span; there's no depth to it.  This has caused artists who actually sit down and put thought into their art, which is focused around conceptual ideas and beliefs they need to convey, to force feed us new material to obtain relevancy.

We have said this before, and I'm going to say it again-- Twitter is the worse thing to happen to rap artists.  It's the best thing to happen to people like me who run blogs, and have podcasts, and do interviews.  I can get directly in touch with an artist and have an actual conversation with them.  At the same time, these artists can also have a real conversation with me, no cameras, no rules, and that's where the problems start, but that's another post for another day.  My point is, artists have used twitter to do their own PR outside of commercials, radio spots, public appearances, and billboards.  An artist can be in the studio working on a new song and tweet about it.  From there, he can officially drop the song before it ever gets stolen and leaked.  Sounds good right?  In most cases its good for up-n-coming artists, but for established artists.. it can be a bad thing.  If an artist releases an album on Tuesday, and starts dropping bonus tracks Friday, he's killing the longevity of his material.  People will listen to his album and then almost immediately turn around and start requesting more songs, encore tracks.  So now, this is the norm, and that's not good.

Lets talk about Lupe for instance.  Lu dropped Lasers, and basically sh*tted on his own album but also still had to do PR for it, so he's been very contradictory when it comes to discussing his feelings about his third project.  I heard an interview last week, where Lu talked about putting out a new mixtape in a few months, then an ep or something while working with a rock band, AND he's working on his next album, FaL2.  Timeout Lu.  This dude is wilding.  How long did it take us to get LupEND, I mean Lasers again?  And he's talking about dropping 3 more tapes.  What about lasers Lu.  He basically killed the longevity of his album.  Lasers is now yesterdays news, lets talk about his fourth album and laser has barely been out 2 full months.  He's basically pushing people away from his own project.  And why does an artist like Lu need to drop an EP, and a mixtape in the same year he's dropped an album.  We waited almost 3 years (maybe more) for Lasers.  When he dropped a new track like Beamin', his fans were all over it.  It was all they had and it kept him relevant.  He was giving us a taste of what was to come.  What came first the demand or the over-surplus of material to listen to?

Rap music is so instant now.  Big
K.R.I.T. dropped Returnof4Eva a little less than a year after Wuz Here and he had an ass load more downloads then last year.  The increase in fans due to word of mouth was phenomenal.  Yet, when he walks into an interview the first thing I'm expected to ask him is "So what's next, when the next mixtape?"  I wish an artist would straight up say, "WTF you mean, I just gave you guys a classic work of art that I slaved over.  I poored my heart and soul into that music.  Are yall done listening already?"  That's exactly what it feels like out here.  People are waiting for J. Cole's next tape, like Friday Night Lights didn't have 16+ tracks for listeners to soak in and really sit back and enjoy. 

To be honest, this shit goes farther back then the Lil Bs and Charles Hamiltons of the industry (I don't know anyone who has ALL his material).  It actually goes all the way back to Jay-Z. 

 Hova set this standard.  Yes, DMX did drop two albums literally 11 months apart, maybe less.  But Jay-Z is the un-duplicatively successful Hip Hop mogul.  Some people may try and compare Eminem, but if you check the records, he normally released an album every two years.  Jay-Z released one new album every year from 1996 - 2003.  He broke the mold and refined the methods of the Record label hustle.  Every label wanted their artists dropping new material as soon as possible, so they could cash in and move on to the next project.  At the time, it didn't seem like Hova was doing anything wrong, but now we can clearly see what that has done to the Hip Hop Industry (rhyme not intended).

Another factor, that just came to mind, is the record contracts.  Because some artists can write to their hearts desire but can't read for sh*t, they got themselves locked into these ridiculous multiple album contracts.  These deals may have seemed good at first, when you were broke, and struggling, but now artists are rich industry slaves.  They can't make the music they want unless the labels back them, and this kills their whole process.  It also creates a lot of tension and bad blood between the artist and the label, see Saigon, Big Boi, etc...  So what do artists do, they force feed us albums so they can meet the requirements of their contracts and break free from the label chains.  This is how you get 3 horrible albums in a row from an artist.  All of these have contributed to the way artists release music today.  Since these artists can't get the backing (that 360 deal backing) for touring, video, and studio, they have found a new way to stay relevant and stay in the spot light and that's flooding the blogs and twitter with new music just about every day.  Is it cool that we get to hear Kendrick Lamar on three different mixtapes in the same month, not to mention a J. Cole song, yes!  Does it suck that Pusha T just released Fear of God mixtape, and now because his album got pushed back, is talking about releasing a Fear of God EP...YES!  This is getting a little ridiculous in my opinion.

Bottom line, artists need to realize that their music should have a longer life span to it.  Lets talk about now, not next year.  Its not about controlling a summer, it should be about controlling a whole year if possible.  Artists need to tour more.  More work needs to be put into albums.  Artists need to release more singles from THE SAME ALBUM.  Fancy videos are cool and all but real down to earth videos are what's popping on these Youtube and Vimeo streets.  Creativity, not quantity is where it's at, people. 

Dreamin' is one of the illest videos to drop this year and the budget for that doesn't look too strong at all.  Freaks and Geeks was shot in one location and they probably did it in a few takes because it was all about his energy.  Not video hoes.  Not Lambos.  No bottle popping and chain flashing or HYPE WILLIAMS running across your screen in some type of glow stick, old html 2, blinking marquee struggling, Enter the Void influenced sh*t.  I just want to be able to sit back and enjoy an album with out having to worry about missing 20 other albums that dropped in between the time it took me to get from track 2 to track 8.  That type of dedication is too similar to work.